Musings on a Life in the Theatre, Tablet PC's, Cultural Issues, (oh, and the occasional emu sighting...)

83 posts categorized "Sign of the Times"

December 03, 2012

Here we go. It's Ink Blot Awards time. A time for fun, and time for some introspection, a time for passing time, and a time for looking back. I've been blogging both here and at GottaBeMobile.com for over eight years now. I began this little annual tradition on the first annivesary of this blog as a way of celebrating a community that no longer exists today. That community was a group of geeks devoted to the early Tablet PCs. Things have changed quite a bit since, but here's what I wrote on that first anniversary as some context.

I created The Life On The Wicked Stage Ink Blot Awards
as a celebration. Yes, it's a celebration of the 1 year anniversary of
this blog. But it is more than that. It is a celebration of a community
that I have come to know and admire. The Tableteers that make up the
Tablet PC Community are an amazing collection of individuals who know
and work with the Tablet PC platform. They are fiercely protective of
it, insatiably curious about advancing it, very intelligent, often
wickedly funny, at one time very forgiving and patient, and in the same
breath, scathingly critical when the need arises. They are also
exceedingly willing to evangelize the platform to anyone who will
listen, and in my humble opinion, have helped keep the spotlight on The
Tablet PC in ways that may, in the long run, prove to be responsible
for keeping the platform thriving.

Like I said, many things have changed since then. The Ink Blot Awards continue to evolve, without or without any hint of intelligent design. Those early Tablet PCs might as well be made of stone given how the technology has advanced. The media that covers Tablets (and other things as well) proves over and over again that the exciting technology we have at our current disposal doesn't mean that the stone age thinking of how we cover things goes away with new technology.

What hasn't changed and what's consistent about Tablets and mobile tech is that they offer a very personal experience. Apple gets this. Microsoft and others are trying to, but they insist on making devices while Apple creates experiences.

My attitude about politics, cultural
happenings, and other things are also changing. I've also
changed how I observe and remark about them. The convenience of Twitter, App.net, Google+ and Facebook take something away from this blog. I used to worry about that. I don't any longer.

I used to find most of what revolves around us as we make our way through this crazy life as entertaining
in a "Human Comedy" sort of way. That has stopped, largely. What used to entertain more frequently just fills me with disdain. I guess that's mostly because those that pull the levers seem to view us all with disdain and they are becoming more transparent about it. I suppose I'm losing my tolerance, but perhaps that's because these days you can't talk about things in a nuanced manner. Whether the subject be politics or the latest gadget, you're either with us or against us, whoever the us is. Why remain tolerant with intolerance? Hating is the in thing these days, though for whatever reason I can't quite figure out. The ins and outs of life begin with the foibles of humans. We can create beauty and magic. We can also screw up just about anything we touch given half a chance. It
used to be we acknowledged that,
celebrated it, and moved on, bettering ourselves in the process. We might still do some of that, but far too often I increasingly feel like we're playing a sucker's game. Granted the game is being rigged by other suckers who just don't realize that's what they are. Rats in a maze can only repeat their paths so often before they pass out and die or get too fat from finding the reward. I often wonder why we get so many chances to make the same mistakes over and over. Maybe we're just too small to see the maze.

All pretense aside, the rules for inclusion on this little list are the same as they have always been. Award winners are subject to my own whims and
fancies. Some are best in class, some are just frivilous, some deserve
the small heaping of scorn these awards might cast their way. Human
nature, no matter the field of endeavor, is ripe with that which needs
celebrating, and that which needs derision cast its way. Good friend and Tableteer, Mark “Sumocat” Sumimoto,
christened these awards with the nickname of ‘The Blotties’ in year
one, and that sorta stuck. So we'll let it keep sticking. And finally,
if you don't like the list, go make your own.

September 17, 2012

So, citizens are occupying some real estate in NYC again. This recurring event that seems to be a good news story happens whenver Apple releases a new iPhone And once again, lines are alrady forming in the Big Apple for the iPhone 5 release this Friday, September 21. Funny, how it seems some professional line sitters are being hired to do this kind of thing. Business is business after all. And speaking of business, today is also the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. That's not necessarily a good news story. It appears that demonstrators and cops are already out in force. I find it an intriguing if not ironic contrast that both things are happening simultaneously with two distinctly different reactions from the authorities. But then, one is about spending money, and the other is about how others take advantage of money. You figure out which is which.

July 30, 2012

Is the limbo an Olympic event? Because If this was a limbo contest, the only country that could continue to compete would be Lilliput. Yeah, I know it's a fictious place, but then so is the Olympics coverage fictious. I'm also guessing the NBC producers and announcers wouldn't know that either based on their performances so far. There's lot of jumping up and down about NBC's coverage of the Olympics, tape delays, getting ticked off at Twitter users, and generally acting like the clueless corporation that it is. Note that we've been down the tape delay path previously and as cyncial as that manuever is, it has become expected behavior. We've also seen the protect the brand at any costs manuevers before as well.

What's not expected though, and what I continue to marvel at, is NBC's insistence on trying to pretend there are two worlds out there: one that is aware and one that isn't. Now, let's be clear. There are two worlds out there. One is aware and one isn't. NBC (and they are not alone) knows that, and plays to the lowest common denominator of the world that isn't aware. It's no different than politics these days. I mean if we follow the media we actually think we have two worthy contenders running for an office that doesn't matter anymore. Actually, it's no different than anything that those who run the media conglomerates purport to cover and bring us info about.

But give me a break on a couple of things here. NBC says we needed context to appreciate the opening ceremonies from its crack team of professionals. You know, the ones who proceeded to make snarky remarks and show their ignorance during the tape delayed broadcast. Watching a little bit of that, you would have thought NBC had pulled over the Saturday Night Live team to provide commentary. The commentary and the context was that not funny. How anyone can take any of those announcers seriously ever again is beyond me. And remember this was tape delayed, so someone with some smarts could have done some judicious editing here.

It's one thing to have a business model to try and maximize profits by taking advantage of the lazy, the ignorant, and the uneducated. That's what passes for business in today's world. It's slightly another thing in today's world to try and pretend that those who are aware won't call you on it, and then get all huffy and defensive when they do. Especially when you are secretly enjoying the raft of publicity created by your own failures, knowing full well that is driving traffic. Of course, if there was a big story at these Olympics that caught someone with their pants down the way NBC has been exposed, you can be sure that the NBC producers and talking heads would be bashing those with their fannies hanging out in much the same way that NBC is getting bashed right now.

It's a shame really. We've reached a point where spoonfeeding the masses has forced us to disguise the spoon. But then again, we all share a bit in that. Unless we just turn the crap off.

July 27, 2012

The Olympics start. Occaasional great celebration of atheletic acheivement mixed in with commerical greed that makes American Pro Sports blush.

Some say we need a debate on guns. Some say we can't because of the big bad NRA. Some say that its all about the 2nd Amendment and rights and that pesky comma. Some say cars kill more than guns do. Really? Give me a break. We know when we get on the road we are putting our lives in our own hands and the lives of those sharing the road. When we sit in a movie theatre, or anywhere else, I don't think that's part of the bargain. But I guess it is in these sick minds. As for that whole second amendment thing? Give me a break. It's there, it's real. It's open to some interpretation. But for the love of Pete, it doesn't give any of us the right to own an arsenal. Some say this will never change in this country. They are correct. Because all, including those with the automatic weapons are cowards and slaves to money. Yeah, slaves.

There's a presidential election going on. Well, there's supposed to be one. Everyone is pretending that this is for real and the result will matter. It will, but not in any great way. We've succeeded in destroying anything and everything about what real consequences mean by turning politics into a charade of itself, and the power of governance into a casino. All sides own this. All sides are slaves to this. Owning and being a slave. Fancy that.

The economy continues to sputter. Really? You're surprised and excpect different results? Give me a break. Those who think things will continue this way until after the election are dreaming as well. It's not going to change. Too many folks making too much money to put people back to work. Unemployment will remain above 7% for some time ahead and guess what. Those who control the game have no interest in seeing it change. Slaves to some concept that says investors are owed profits for gambling. And we think Vegas is Sin City.

LIBOR. Yeah, it's getting some play, but should get more. Thievery isn't sexy when the media (what, we still have a media?) can't explain what the theft is without using numbers. Greatest theft of all time. These guys make the Mafia look like amatuers.

Derecho. I guess we need a new term to describe these crazy storms. Greenland's ice cover is gone. We're in a drought. Storms pillage areas like rampaging Bank Executives. (Don't you wish Capital One would replace its barbarians in the commericals with Bank Executives. They rape and pillage better than the cuddly barbarians.) But goodness me, we can't talk about this in a scientific way, because, you know, that would maybe piss off someone who might vote for someone.

Voter suppression. So, it's pretty obvious (so much so that it seems to be a fait accompli) that those who can't stand a black man as president have engaged in some pretty shifty (and clever) voter suppression tactics in some states. I've got a suggestion. Let's change all the voting laws, so that only those who keep their income in US repositories get to vote. That kind of heralds back to the days when only property owners could vote in this country. Got to love those founding fathers.

Congress. Since all we have is a reality show masquerading as a Congress, don't you think it's time to change the channel or cancel the show?

December 08, 2011

Each year the folks at Lake Superior State University publish one of my favorite lists. This list contains words or phrases that they believe should be banned because they are overused or just, well, they just shouldn't be used period.

This year's Lake Superior State University List of Banned Words contains some interesting ones such as viral, FAIL, epic, A-Ha moment, and one phrase that I think has become as demeaning in its overuse, The American People. As the nominator says, aren't all Americans people?

Anyway, enjoy this year's list. And if you want to see all the words that have been banned in the past here's a link to that as well.

December 04, 2011

Like everything else in my life in this insane year this post is a day late and a dollar short. The seventh anniversary of this blog was yesterday, December 3. But things in my life kept me from putting the finishing touches on the post and getting it published on the big day. On some level that's unacceptable. On others it is entirely in character this year. But then, maybe we'll see that change in the new year.

Seven years. (and a day) That's how long I've been presenting the Ink Blot Awards as my way of recognizing the anniversary of this blog. It's been a fun ride. It's been full of laughs. I'm hoping this year's awards will also provide a few chuckles to folks who stop by and give them a read. Although the history is mostly ancient and perhaps bordering on the irrelevant, I think it is important to provide some of it as context. So here goes:

I created The Life On The Wicked Stage Ink Blot Awards as a celebration. Yes, it's a celebration of the 1 year anniversary of this blog. But it is more than that. It is a celebration of a community that I have come to know and admire. The Tableteers that make up the Tablet PC Community are an amazing collection of individuals who know and work with the Tablet PC platform. They are fiercely protective of it, insatiably curious about advancing it, very intelligent, often wickedly funny, at one time very forgiving and patient, and in the same breath, scathingly critical when the need arises. They are also exceedingly willing to evangelize the platform to anyone who will listen, and in my humble opinion, have helped keep the spotlight on The Tablet PC in ways that may, in the long run, prove to be responsible for keeping the platform thriving.

So much has changed in the time I started blogging that first year. It's changed with me and also that community has certainly changed. Those around me have changed as well in an eerie parallel to how things with Tablets have changed. Tablets mean different things now-a-days, although some of those who make them seem to have less penchant for success than Microsoft did.

What hasn't changed and what's consistent about Tablets is that they are still the very personal devices that they started out to be. Microsoft never recognized that. Apple did. Others tried to emulate without acknowledging the core reasons for Apple's success. And by and large they failed.

What's also changed is my attitude about politics, cultural happenings, and other things that I observe on this blog. I've also changed how I observe and remark about them. The convenience of Twitter and Google+ take something away from this blog. Sometimes I worry about that. Sometimes I don't.

I've become increasingly disenchanted with quite a few things this year. To be honest, I don't know why. I used to find it all entertaining in a "Human Comedy" sort of way. I don't find it that entertaining anymore. The ins and outs of life begin with the foibles of humans. It used to be that somewhere along the line we acknowledged that, celebrated it, and moved on, bettering ourselves in the process. While I think we still acknowledge it, and we might celebrate it, the only benefit we're deriving by moving on is to repeat the same things over and over again with an increasing frequency. I think this year's Ink Blot Awards reflect that with the number of repeats. Or they reflect my warped sense of things.

This was a year that so many things resulted in a "FAIL" that I think we have to look for a new buzz word for failure. Politics and the circus around it started performing without a tent and nobody cared that the clowns weren't funny any more. It's not that the clowns weren't funny that is maddening. It's depressing that no one cared anymore. Major tech companies became exposed for what can only be described as abhorent stratagies. New gadgets now depend on the same fickle first weekend sales that movies do. Of course if we had better gadgets being released, we'd probably see better results. Social networking became a parody of itself and all of that sharing resulted in a few shares too many or not nearly enough, depending on your perspective. Big media continued to prove that it doesn't have a clue. Little media seems to inexplicably want to follow that path as well. Oh, and Mother Nature reached up and smacked the planet around trying to get our attention. But aside from watching the compelling video and pictures we continued to just be thankful it wasn't us feeling her wrath, and sympathetic to those who did. The 99% became the Tea Party without the tea but with lots of party, because in the end the complaints are the same. For its efforts it got criticized by the 1% for being unorganized, dirty, and partying too much by the 1% that defines itself by making money and not making anything else so it can party. I think the 1% are just jealous because they feel like they have to dress up and shower in order to play their game. There's an old saying in show biz that if you put real life on the stage no one would believe it. I think if you put this last year on the stage, not only wouldn't anyone believe it, but Groupon would have a hard time selling discount tickets to it.

Last year's many repeats were due primarily to me spending the year dealing with my mother's terminal illness and ultimate passing. This year's repeats, I think, deal more with the fact that nothing has really changed. Change used to be a constant. I don't think it is as constant presently. On some levels I find that depressing, on larger levels I find that extremely human. I also find that it focuses those who are looking at life with 20/20 vision into a clearer view that someday may pull us out of the rut we're in.

Any pretense at aspirations aside, the rules for inclusion on the list are the same. Award winners are subject to my own whims and fancies. Some are best in class, some are just frivilous, some deserve the small heaping of scorn these awards might cast their way. Human nature, no matter the field of endeavor, is ripe with that which needs celebrating and that which needs derision cast its way. Good friend, Tablet PC MVP and fellow GBM contributor, Mark “Sumocat” Sumimoto, christened these awards with the nickname of ‘The Blotties’ in year one, and that sorta stuck. So we'll let it keep sticking. And finally, if you don't like the list, go make your own.

So, as always, hit the jump, cue the dancing girls, beat out a tattoo on the drums, sound the trumpets (or the theremin) and get ready for the Seventh Annual Life on the Wicked Stage Ink Blot Awards .

December 02, 2011

If there was a shark that was still circling the wading pool after all the splashing we've been through so far in this political season we would now have jumped it. It's been apparent for some time now that what passes for presidential poltitics has become not only irrelevant, but a continual mockery of itself. All players in the charade have been unmasked and anyone passing for an Emperor can't be that embarrassed to be exposed because all of the exposers are just as unclothed.

November 20, 2011

I suppose we've exhausted the clichéness of the cliché that George Santayana is credited with, "those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it." All you need do is look around, if you have the courage to fix your gaze on just about anything that is happening in the world today. The picture that heads this post from an OWS protest at UC Cal Davis is just one example of how we've either lost any perspective on our current roles in the continuim or have just decided, in some astonishing feat of hubris, that what we're doing has no connection to the magnificient human errors that we and our ancestors stumbled into in the past.

What's that lesson we all learn as children? Stick you hand in a flame and you get burned? Why have we seemed to take a collective leave of our senses (both physical and intellectual) when it comes to dancing so periously close to fires we thought we had extinguished? Is the burning heat and glow of the fire so seductive that we ignore the potential for pain?

Here's a small list of seemingly collective memorable moments in time within which we seem to have collectively forgotten to remember our past.

The ridiculous responses to the OWS protests.The crackdowns serve to inflame not douse. These efforts to diminish the protests only serve to diminish the diminishers. I mean seriously, you write a memo explaining our you are going to spend money to discredit the protesters and let it leak?

Wall St and the finanical world, you know that place where people make money by not making anything, are heading us all into another crash. Of course this behavior and our lack of a government with any desire to do something about it led to the OWS movement in the first place.

The Republican presidential circus primary. I mean if Newt Gingrich can be on the ascendancy then those who are boosting him upward either don't care, or the office of the presidency has lost all meaning. Probably both. But then, I think the last decade has proven that what we call the US poltical process is nothing more than a hand maiden to bigger interests.

The list could go on and on, because as a species we just go on and on. But somehow in the going on and on, we've forgotten to carry any baggage with us from out collective past as we try to step into the future unfettered. But the only thing that is unfettered or unencumbered seems to be our destiny to find ourselves, again, on the bottom of the cycle that is life, crying about the burns on our hands.

July 04, 2011

It's the 4th of July here in the US, so if you're here I hope you have a safe and Happy Independence Day. Of course these days, Independence seems to be taking on all sorts of new meanings, especially from those who seem to declare their Independence from reading and comprehension as some sort of badge of honor.

June 06, 2011

We opened Wayside Theatre's 50th Anniversary Season last night with a stirring production of Reunion: A Musical Epic in Miniature. I have to tell you the burden of guiding such a talented group of artists and administrators to this higher than normal expectation filled opening took a toll on me. That toll is ameliorated somewhat by the amazing talents and selfless collaboration of all who were involved in the mounting of the show. The six performers and those that support them were not just amazing last night, they were on fire. The met the stage and the play and then shared it with the audience in a way that sent chills down my spine. That doesn't happen much to this grizzled and battle scarred director. Each and every one of them had moments that were transcendent. Each and every one of them achieved new highs. Each and everyone of them, their talents, and their efforts will always be cherished as a highlight for me in a long list of opening nights.

Reunion was and is not a safe choice for our theatre and our community. Some have called it a "Yankee play." As one patron suggested last night, "it is a brave choice for this small Southern town." Maybe so. Yes, it challenges. Yes, it makes you think, and, yes, it takes you to places that are uncomfortable. But not just for Southerners. If I did my job correctly it pushes buttons with even the most progressive of thinkers. And while it deals with racism, The Civil War, and the complexities that make up our American character, then and now, it also reveals the searing personal moments of human beings caught up in something so much larger than themselves. With words spoken and sung on stage drawn from the actual characters who lived through those times, it is amazing how many of the thoughts and ideas behind those words of yesterday not only resonate but, sadly, still fill our conversation today. At its heart, Reunion is about all of us in its scope, and how far we have and haven't come since we decided to take up arms against ourselves. At its core, Reunion: A Musical Epic in Miniature is a celebration of the theatre and the images that it can convey that challenge us to think deeply about our convictions.

In the beginning of the second act, when Mr. Harry Hawk's company is performing a "popular entertainment" and the audience responds with the release of laughter to the inane silliness of the song and the moment, there is a moment where truth stabs those who think deeply in the heart with a stiletto. When Mr. Lovecraft says "this is the age of shoddy," in response to the goings on, it makes you realize just how long that age has been going on.

So, we're open and now on to the run of the show, which should prove more than interesting. But then, that's why I think Mr. Lincoln loved the theatre.